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An outdoor blog about camping and festivals, may contain teenager and puppies.
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Maybe you are off to a festival, maybe you are a minimalist camper who doesn't use EHU, but either way there may be times you are away from home, away from the power to refrigerate things, but you are not quite rich enough to eat out for every meal. What options are open to you?

As a camper that uses a cool box occasionally but never uses EHU I have a few ideas.

Let's start with breakfast.

On the first day you could splash out with a fry up of bacon, eggs, mushrooms, tomato and potato. These things will keep for a day if you can keep them cool - but I tend to just bring enough for day one.
Other things that you can pack for breakfast include lots of things that are individually packed, many bread based things go mouldy quickly in the moist summer heat inside a tent, so things that are packed singly are a good way to keep things fresh. The pound shop is a good source of camping food. My personal favourites are brioche, croissants, breakfast biscuits and cereal bars. It's worth taking some of the original 'individually wrapped food' though, bananas are great for breakfast and an any time snack. Oranges are also good here, and of course for drinks there are lots of individual juice cartons, and even flavoured milk and soya drinks or iced coffee cartons. Don't forget to pack tea and coffee bags and some longlife milk.

For lunch you might be out and about.

Why not look at taking some snacks like crisps, babybel cheese, mini cheddars, nuts and fruit. Drinks could include juice or water (water is readily available at all festivals - so just bring a refillable bottle) and maybe a gin-in-a-tin or a can of beer. Some festivals won't allow you to bring your own food or booze onto the site, but most kid's festivals allow snacks, and a single can of beer is usually allowed.

For dinner.

You'll probably want to pop back to the tent and maybe cook something. Tinned food is great for storage and there is a huge choice, from soup and the ubiquitous baked beans to more exotic examples like full English breakfasts and curries. My favourite is chilli (extra hot Stagg is just amazing) but as rice takes a long time to cook (and therefore a lot of gas) I tend to favour the almost ready pouch type of rice, you can mix it with the chilli - add a little extra water and cook it all together in one pan, real cowboy food! A can of sweet and sour chicken would be nice with some noodles (also available in pouches). And of course, for noodle lovers there is always a pot noodle. If you packed some buns then you could have some hotdogs one evening, easy to cook and easy to eat - remember no glass on the festival site, go for the hotdogs that are vacuum packed.

So there are some tasty 'no fridge' meal ideas for you. You can also store eggs, potatoes (slice and then fry) and lots of other tinned foods (fruit and custard for example!) and carton foods too, but try and plan ahead - no one wants to carry more than they need and you might end up with a lot to cart back to the car if you over pack.(I'm speaking from experience) Some festivals now have places to leave unused food for the local food bank at the end of the festival.

Don't forget to take things like oil, tomato ketchup, salt as well.

Are there any great meals for a festival or no fridge camping that I've forgotten?

Frozen, already sliced bread rolls (buttered before you freeze them, with some greaseproof paper in between) works well. Frozen bacon. Then stick the lot into a large cool bag with frozen individual water bottles. You have breakfast that will last for the first three days at least, plus as the water slowly melts you have cold water (lovely for mid-summer festivals when it's proper hot).

For other meals and snacks, I take cheery tomatoes and radishes, tinned fruits and jellies. Cup-a-soups are always a firm favourite for bad weather. Cous cous is amazing - get some of the Ainsley Harriott flavoured packets, then stir them up with hot water and chuck in cheery toms, radish, chopped red onion and some celery. Oh and sticks of celery filled with crunchy peanut butter is a quick and easy way to get energy on the go!

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